Date: October 13th, 2009
Show Time: 8:00pm
Tickets - $45 Advance $50 door
Doc Walker - Country / Rock
From the free-spirited country rock of the Eagles to the blended vocal bliss of so many trail blazing bands like Poco, Pure Prairie League, Alabama and America… you can instantly tell if an act has history by giving their harmonies a good listen. Those soaring, heart-yanking harmonies are like musical tree rings, revealing the stories shared by those layered voices raised in jubilant major chords or plaintive minor-key intervals. You know when a group’s got it, that elusive chemistry that only comes from years of bickering, bonding and really understanding each other, when their harmonies ring out clear as bells; in Canadian country trio Doc Walker’s case, their fantastic harmony-laced new album Beautiful Life leaves no doubt – these boys have it and then some.
Today, Doc Walker may be on their way to becoming one of the hottest country acts in North America, but the core guitar-playing threesome of Chris Thorsteinson, Dave Wasyliw and Murray Pulver have known each other since they were just scrappy kids fooling around with guitars in small-town Manitoba. Schooled by the best axeman in town – guitar virtuoso Pulver, who’s three years older than his band mates – Thorsteinson and Wasyliw first started making music together at the ripe old age of 14. From the sounds of it, their atrociously-named group Freedom made the fellas the rock gods of ninth grade – feathered 80s hair and all.
Jessie Farrell - Pop / Country
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Jessie Farrell.
Jessie is passionate about her music, and that emotion infuses her whole musical package, whether listening to her powerfully-candid melodies or by witnessing one of her goose-pimple-inducing live performances. As the loyal fan base she has cultivated would attest to, Farrell makes the kind of imprint that keeps people interested and inspired.
In recording Nothing Fancy (604 Records/Universal Music Canada), the CD that now sits within your reach, Jessie was clearly focused on her gut instinct when it came to capturing these new songs. The result is a wonderful collection of joyful country -pop that is often attempted, but rarely successfully attained; a Dixie Chicks/Shania/Alison Kraus-esque magic that a wide variety of ages and audiences are drawn into. Mix that cross-genre appeal with Jessie’s chemistry and magnetism and you have a force to be reckoned with; radio has warmly embraced this young artist, and her live show – which includes opening slots for Tim McGraw/Faith Hill, Johnny Reid and Emerson Drive – continues to draw excitement and attention to her career.
After releasing her first, independent CD in 2002,, Jessie found an ally and fan in the form of songwriter Jim Vallance, whose music has been recorded by everyone from Tina Turner to Bryan Adams to Bonnie Raitt and beyond. “I say that I went to the school of Jim Vallance,” laughs Jessie, “because I spent a good solid year with him, working regularly and learning a lot. I wanted to make pop radio-friendly music, and to learn from somebody who obviously had some kind of ability to write strong hooks. A song from our writing sessions will appear on this new record. I’m very grateful for that opportunity.”
